Sunday, May 10, day of the commemoration of the slave trade and slavery, decreed by the French government (Chirac 2006), the President Michel Martelly, in the presence of French President Francois Hollande and more than fifty heads of State and Government as well as representatives of prestigious international institutions participated in the inauguration of the world's largest center of memory on slavery, the Memorial ACTe in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe.

In his speech, the President of the Republic of France welcomed the presence of Haitian President Michel Martelly whose country was the first to break the chains of slavery around the world. Mr. Holland, who praised the indigenous army that defeated the French troops, declared "This memorial will tell the world that the fight for human dignity is not over."

Addressing the sensitive issue of financial compensation, the French President stated "Do we have stressed enough that when abolition was acquired, the issue of compensation took proportions and especially a particularly surprising orientation, since it was claimed to body and cries not by the former slaves but by the old masters which required to be compensated for the loss of the work force they had recorded in their writing as the value of their livestock. Charles X (1825) even claimed the young Republic of Haiti a State compensation of 150 million gold francs to compensate the former colonists who would claim it, some have called this requirement, the ransom of independence [...]"

Note that this incredible amount has been reduced to 90 million gold francs in 1838, equivalent to € 17 billion that the Haitians have finished paying in 1946.

Speaking directly to Michel Martelly, President Hollande surprised the audience by declaring in a formula confusing "When I will come to Haiti, I will I will pay in turn the debt we have." Comments that quickly ignited the social network and cause many reactions...

However following this declaration, the entourage of the French President clarified to the national and international press, came in large numbers, that the words of President Hollande spoke only of a "moral debt" and not financial as some believed to have understood.

Francois Hollande will be in Haiti on Tuesday, the last stop of his tour after Cuba.

HL/ S/ HaitiLibre